Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Six Seventeenth-Century Dutch Scientists and Their Knowledge of Music

  • Chapter
Music and Science in the Age of Galileo

Part of the book series: The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science ((WONS,volume 51))

  • 307 Accesses

Abstract

Scientists throughout history have occupied themselves with music, but never has their interest in music been stronger than during the age of Galileo. This essay will focus on six seventeenth-century Dutch scientists who contributed to musical science, and try to shed light on their musical competence as well as their knowledge of music theory. The six are Simon Stevin, Isaac Beeckman, Joan Albert Ban, René Descartes, Dirck Rembrantszoon van Nierop, and Christiaan Huygens. In their diversity they may constitute a representative set of musical scientists in the age of Galileo in general. And diverse they are! Stevin was an army engineer; Beeckman, a schoolmaster; Ban trained as a Catholic priest; Descartes was a philosopher; van Nierop worked as a shoemaker; and Huygens was a physicist. All six were active in the Republic of the Seven Allied Provinces from about the last quarter of the sixteenth century until the end of the seventeenth century. Descartes merits inclusion in this group because of his prolonged stay in the Netherlands—in effect, nearly all of his professional career—and because of his mastery, to a certain extent, of the Dutch language.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Reference

  1. For a comprehensive account of Stevin’s life and works, see E. J. Dijksterhuis, Simon Stevin (The Hague, 1943) and the abbreviated translation into English, Simon Stevin: Science in the Netherlands around 1600 (The Hague, 1970).

    Google Scholar 

  2. The first edition of both versions is in D. Bierens de Haan, Simon Stevin: Vande Spiegeling der Singkonst et Vande Molens (Amsterdam, 1884). An edition of the early version in English translation by A. D. Fokker is in S. Stevin, The Principal Works, Volume V: Engineering, Music, Civic life (Amsterdam, 1966), pp. 413–464. A facsimile edition of the later version with transcription, translation, and comprehensive introduction by R. A. Rasch is in preparation.

    Google Scholar 

  3. These materials will be described in detail in the introduction to the new edition of Stevin’s Singconst mentioned in the preceding note.

    Google Scholar 

  4. See Stevin, 1884, pp. 45, 80; also The Hague, Royal Library, Ms. K.A. XLVII, fols. 638v/643 and 639v/642.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Stevin, 1884, pp. 42–43.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Stevin, 1884, p. 41.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ms. K.A. XLVH, fol. 632.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ms. K.A. XLVH, fol. 649v.

    Google Scholar 

  9. In addition, one of the music examples in the later version of the Singconst may be borrowed from the Septiesme livre, because its notes are the incipit of the tenor of Arcadelt’s Vitam quae faciunt, which occurs in the Septiesme livre.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Stevin, 1884, p. 18. The lute setting appears in the famous “Thysius Lute Book,” Leiden, Riksuniversiteitsbibliothek, Ms. Thysius 1666, fol. 342.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Stevin, 1884, p. 64, footnote.

    Google Scholar 

  12. See Frits Noske, “David Janszoon Padbru¨¦¡ªCorael, luytslager, vlascoper,” in Renaissancemuziek 1900–1600: Donum natalicum R. B. Lenaerts (Leuven, 1969), pp. 179–186.

    Google Scholar 

  13. See the “vie de l’auteur” in Comelis de Waard, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 ¨¤ 1634. Tome premier: 1604–1619 (The Hague, 1939).

    Google Scholar 

  14. The manuscript was destroyed during the bombing of Middelburg on 17 May 1940. Fortunately, a modem edition was prepared by de Waard just prior to its destruction (see preceding note.) The remainder of the volumes in the de Waard edition are as follows: Tome deuxi¨¨me: 1619–1627 (The Hague, 1942); Tome troisi¨¨me: 1627–1634 (1635) (The Hague, 1953); Tome quatri¨¨me: Suppl¨¦ment (The Hague, 1953). All further references to the Journal are to these volumes.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, p. 221: “Myn stemme om te synghen is so quaet dat myn meester seyde noyt geen slechter gesien te hebben; evenwel hebbe ick soveel geleert, dat ick mede partye singhen kan, maer niet seer wel; kan oock het discorderen niet wel hooren.”

    Google Scholar 

  16. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 323 (1619).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 84 (1615–16).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 88 (1616).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 56 (1614–15).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 84–85 (1628).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 184–87 (1618).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 287–88 (1633).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, p. 37 (1628).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 66–69 (1628).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Beeckman, Journal, 1619–1627, pp. 292, 403–05 (1624).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 29 (1613–14).

    Google Scholar 

  27. See the first three volumes of Beeckman’s Journael, and the letters from Beeckman to Mersenne of March, 1629 and June, 1629, in C. de Waard, Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne II. 1628–1630 (Paris, 1936).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, pp. 227–32 (1618), p. 274 (1619).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 50 (1614–15).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Beeckman, Journal, 1604–1619, p. 190 (1618).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Beeckman, Journal, 1619–1627, pp. 23–24 (1620).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 288 (1633). Another interesting reference is to a volume entitled Orphei Lusthof, which appeared in Haarlem in 1625, and which is lost today. It is only through Beeckman that we learn it contained instrumental ensemble music, by “I. Z. G.” and “F. B.” including a Branle Loreyne; see Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 83–84 (1628).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Beeckman, Journal, 1619–1627, pp. 4–5 (1619) and pp. 16–19 (1620).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Beeckman, Journal, Suppl¨¦ment, pp. 128–29 (1628).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, pp. 310–11 (1633).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Beeckman, Journal, 1627–1634, p. 332 (1625).

    Google Scholar 

  37. On Ban, see R. A. Rasch, “Ban’s intonation,” Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 33 (1983), pp. 75–99; J. W. W. Valkestijn, “Een onbekend handschrift van Joan Albert Ban,” in Liber amicorum Chris Maas, pp. 131–54. See also the references contained in the first footnotes of these articles.

    Google Scholar 

  38. See Valkestijn, “Een onbekend handschrift.”

    Google Scholar 

  39. A facsimile edition of the preface to the Zangh-bloemzel and the complete Sangh-bericht has been edited by Frits Noske (Amsterdam, 1969).

    Google Scholar 

  40. See W. J. A. Jonckbloet & J. P. N. Land, Musique et musiciens au XVIIe si¨¨cle. Correspondance et oeuvres musicales de Constantin Huygens (Leiden, 1882).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Letter from Ban to Constantijn Huygens of 11 August 1636.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Letters from Ban to Doni of 1 January and 1 March 1639; letter from Ban to Mersenne of 17 April 1639; letter from Ban to Anna Maria van Schunnan of 20 August 1640.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Letter from Ban to Huygens of 19 May 1640.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Letter from Ban to Anna Maria van Schurman of 20 August 1640 (“Institutiones musicae flexanimae”); letters from Ban to Huygens of 28 January and 2 April 1642, and 5 February 1644.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Letters from Ban to Huygens of 28 January, 27 May, and 21 July 1642.

    Google Scholar 

  46. See Valkestijn, “Een onbekend handschrift.”

    Google Scholar 

  47. See Valkestijn, “Een onbekend handschrift.”

    Google Scholar 

  48. One would have expected some contact between Ban and Cornelis Thymansz Padbru¨¦, a nephew of David Jansz, mentioned above. Padbru¨¦ was of about Ban’s age, a Catholic, and was active as a composer of madrigalesque vocal music in the 1640s, but there is no hint that the two even knew of each other.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Letter from Constantijn Huygens to Ban of 5 January 1640 and from Ban to Huygens of 13 January 1640.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Letter from Ban to Constantijn Huygens of 16 September 1642.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Probably the Opera quae extant omnia (Basel, 1546, 1570).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Collected in Johannes Meursius, Aristoxenus, Nicomachus, Alypius (Leiden, 1616).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Antonius Gogavinus, Aristoxeni...Harmonicorum elementorum libri III, Cl. Ptolemaei Harmonicorum, seu de musica lib. III (Venice, 1562). Gogavinus was born in Grave, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  54. See the letters from Ban to Huygens of 13 and 31 January 1641, and from Huygens to Ban of 20 January.

    Google Scholar 

  55. See D. P. Walker, “Mersenne’s Musical Competition of 1640 and Joan Albert Ban,” in Studies in Musical Science in the Late Renaissance (London & Leiden, 1978), pp. 81–110; the compositions involved are transcribed in Noske, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  56. See Rasch, `Ban’s intonation.“

    Google Scholar 

  57. Letter from Ban to Mersenne of 15 May 1638.

    Google Scholar 

  58. The text is Ode II from Horace’s Liber tertius carminorum. See the letter from Ban to Mersenne of 15 May 1638.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Letters from Ban to Mersenne of 15 May 1638 and 12 and 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Letters from Ban to Mersenne of 15 May 1638 and 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Letters from Ban to William Boswell of 15 December 1637 and to Mersenne of 15 May 1638 and 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Letters from Ban to Mersenne of 15 May 1638 and 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Letter from Ban to Mersenne of 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Letter from Ban to Mersenne of 17 April 1639.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Letter from Ban to Mersenne of 17 April 1639, which also contains the music of this composition.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Letters from Ban to Constantijn Huygens of 7 December 1643 and 5 February 1644.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Letter from Ban to Constantijn Huygens of 5 February 1644.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Letter from Constantijn Huygens to Descartes of 14 August 1640. Descartes’ comments on the book appear in his letter to Huygens of 27 August 1640.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Letter from Huygens to Franciscus van Schooten of 7 October 1654.

    Google Scholar 

  70. See Ch. Adam & Paul Tannery, ed., Oeuvres de Descartes. Correspondance V. Mai 1647-F¨¦vrier 1650 (rpt./Paris, 1974), pp. 265–67.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Wiskonstige Musyka, 1659, pp. 62–68.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Wiskonstige Musyka, 1659, pp. 60–61.

    Google Scholar 

  73. See the “Biographie de Christiaan Huygens,” in Christiaan Huygens, OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingt-et-deuxi¨¨me: Suppl¨¦ment ¨¤ la correspondance. Varia. Biographie de Chr. Huygens. Catalogue de la vente des livres de Chr. Huygens (The Hague, 1950), pp. 385–778.

    Google Scholar 

  74. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 45–46.

    Google Scholar 

  75. A modem edition appears in OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome dixi¨¨me: Correspondance 1691–1695 (The Hague, 1905), pp. 525–533; a facsimile edition with English and Dutch translations ap-pears in R. A. Rasch, ed.,Christiaan Huygens: Le cycle harmonique (Utrecht, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Most of these are now in the Codex Hugenianus 27 in the University Library, Leiden, published in OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me: Musique et math¨¦matique. Musique. Math¨¦matiques de 1666 ¨¤ 1695 (The Hague, 1940). For an inventory of the contents of Codex Hugenianus 27, see Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 76–85.

    Google Scholar 

  77. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 13–19; also J. A. Worp, “De jeugd van Christiaan Huygens, volgens een handschrift van zijn vader,” Oud-Holland 31 (1913), pp. 209–235.

    Google Scholar 

  78. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 30–39.

    Google Scholar 

  79. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 69, 120.

    Google Scholar 

  80. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 118–19.

    Google Scholar 

  81. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, p. 130.

    Google Scholar 

  82. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, p. 112; see also Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 3435,.

    Google Scholar 

  83. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, p. 74.

    Google Scholar 

  84. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, p. 136.

    Google Scholar 

  85. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 123–28.

    Google Scholar 

  86. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 89–100.

    Google Scholar 

  87. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 114–18.

    Google Scholar 

  88. See R. A. Rasch, “De muziekbibliotheek van Constantijn Huygens,” in Veelzijdigheid als levensvorm, ed. A. Th. van Deursen, E. K. Grootes, P. E. L. Verkuyl (Deventer, 1987), pp. 141–62.

    Google Scholar 

  89. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 133–35.

    Google Scholar 

  90. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 128–29.

    Google Scholar 

  91. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome vingti¨¨me, pp. 80–81, 100–103.

    Google Scholar 

  92. In 1694, Huygens wrote to his brother Constantijn in London to try and obtain a copy of William Holder’s A treatise on the natural grounds and principles of harmony (London, 1694), but we do not know whether or not he was successful; see Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., p. 37.

    Google Scholar 

  93. See H. Floris Cohen, Quantifying Music (Dordrecht, 1984), p. 225.

    Google Scholar 

  94. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., p. 22.

    Google Scholar 

  95. The text is from Benigne de Bacilly’s Recueil des plus beaux vers (Paris, 1661), p. 24. The first line should read “A la rigeur des ans.”

    Google Scholar 

  96. See H. L. Brugmans, Le s¨¦jour de Christian Huygens ¨¤ Paris (Paris, 1935), p. 134; OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome troisi¨¨me: Correspondance 1660–1661 (The Hague, 1890), pp. 199–200.

    Google Scholar 

  97. Brugmans, Le s¨¦jour de Christian Huygens, pp. 155–56; OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome troisi¨¨me, pp. 252–54.

    Google Scholar 

  98. OEuvres compl¨¨tes. Tome cinqui¨¨me: Correspondance 1664–1665 (The Hague, 1893), pp. 2425.

    Google Scholar 

  99. Leiden, University Library, Codex Hugenianus 3, fol. 93r; see Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 25–26, 41.

    Google Scholar 

  100. Brugmans, Le s¨¦jour de Christian Huygens, pp. 119–61.

    Google Scholar 

  101. Letter from Christiaan to Constantijn Huygens of 24 September 1655.

    Google Scholar 

  102. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 20–23.

    Google Scholar 

  103. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 23–25.

    Google Scholar 

  104. See Rasch, Christiaan Huygens..., pp. 28–30.

    Google Scholar 

  105. Letter from Christiaan Huygens to Johan Hudde of 14 December 1690.

    Google Scholar 

  106. Leiden, University Library, Codex Hugenianus 27, fol. 52r.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Rudolf A. Rasch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Music, The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Victor Coelho

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rasch, R.A. (1992). Six Seventeenth-Century Dutch Scientists and Their Knowledge of Music. In: Coelho, V. (eds) Music and Science in the Age of Galileo. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 51. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8004-5_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8004-5_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4218-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8004-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation